Good Luck To You!

Does Success Depend On Your Good Luck Charm?

Michael Jordan wore a pair of lucky University of North Carolina shorts for good luck in his basketball games. Eight out of 10 people believe that knocking on wood brings protection. What do we do to bring us good luck, and why do we do it? The answer lies somewhere between culture, superstition and individual quirks.

Good Luck of Old

Take knocking on wood for good luck. Although it is considered a superstition, a 2006 survey by the University of Wales found that 80% of churchgoers in Great Britain do it. It is also noted that some U.S. Air Force crews whose lives depend on their machinery staying in the air touch or knock on trees before taking off on missions. In her book Superstitions, author Suzanne Lord explains the origins of this practice.

"In times past, trees were thought to contain spirits or gods. Wood became linked with sacred protection," reported Lord.

Sometimes people carry lucky charms. One particular good luck charm, celebrated every year on St. Patrick's Day, is the four-leaf clover. Lord explained: "Finding a four-leaf clover in a field is a rare occurrence. This in itself makes it seem lucky. Medieval Christians felt this cross-shaped clover was extra lucky."

If that is so, a 76-year-old retiree from Alaska would be the luckiest man alive. As reported in the Chicago Tribune, Edward Martin has found more than 160,000 four-leaf clovers over his life time.

The tradition of the Celtic four-leaf good-luck charm dates back centuries, with the first written record apparently penned by the British politician and writer Sir John Melton: "If a man walking the fields find any four-leaved grass, he shall, in a small while after, find some good thing."

In the book Irish Wedding Traditions, author Shannon McMahon-Lichte wrote, "According to legend, Eve carried a four-leaf clover when banished from the Garden of Eden." McMahon-Lichte also quoted an old saying about the meaning of each of the lucky four leaves:

One leaf for Hope, the second for Faith,

The third for Love, and the fourth for Luck!

Good Luck Charms from the East

Other cultures have their own ways to get good luck. One particular best-selling Chinese good luck charm is the lucky bamboo, once called "today's hottest houseplant" by the Toronto Star.

"Interior decorators have fallen in crazy love with them," the paper said. "University students are foresting their dorm rooms with them. And ultra-modern brides are ordering pots of the spiky-leafed stems to give away as wedding reception favors."

The Fresno Bee reported that during the Chinese New Year, lucky bamboo flies off of store shelves. The plant is commonly used in feng shui, an ancient Chinese practice of placing and orienting objects in a way to obtain good luck, wealth and health. One feng shui consultant told the paper, "Lucky bamboo symbolizes wood-element energy, which encourages vitality and strength."

Other than the good luck charms embedded in an entire culture, just what brings good luck can be different with each person. Many people carry a personal item, often from their childhood, for good luck.

A 2006 story in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram showed what contestants at the Miss Texas Scholarship Pageant counted on to bring them good luck: a ring given by a best friend, a doll from the contestant's grandmother, and a particular pair of rhinestone earrings were on the list.

Good Luck in the Arenas and Theaters

Sports players are notorious for having good luck charms - some of which may not seem charming at all. Tennis player James Blake had a baseball cap that he wore without washing for three weeks - until he lost in the second round of the 2005 French Open, putting an end to a 14-match winning streak.

During his entire 18 years playing baseball, Wade Boggs always ate chicken at 2 p.m. on game days. Baseball manager Frank Lucchesi never stepped on foul lines.

According to USA Today, tennis player Nadia Petrova always sits on the same side of the umpire's chair once a tournament starts. Michael Llodra of France, a two-time Grand Slam doubles champion, always showers in the second stall.

Perhaps rivaling the sports world for the top superstitious spot is acting. The Committee for the Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal (CSICOP) lists on its web page 19 theatrical good-luck superstitions, all of which seem peculiar to nonactors. A sample:

* Visitors must enter a dressing room with their right foot first.

* When you leave your dressing room, leave with the left foot first.

* Start a performance 13 minutes late.

* Have a cat backstage for luck (although if it runs onstage it means bad luck).

* It is good luck to perform Cinderella.

* It is good luck for one actor to be a hunchback.

And on the Rocket Launch Pad

Even scientists believe in luck. At the Jet Propulsion Lab, which controls the launching and flight of most of our country's unmanned spacecrafts, engineers and scientists pass around a jar of peanuts as good luck charm, according to All Things Considered, a public radio news program.

Dr. Randi Wessen, a navigator program engineer, told All Things Considered that the peanut tradition dates back to 1964, when JPL attempted to send a series of spacecrafts to take pictures of the moon while crashing into it.

"The first six of them all failed," Dr. Wessen recalled. "So when it became time to launch Ranger 7 ... the mission manager passed around peanuts to the crew so that they could just try to ease their tension."

Thus the lowly peanut became the good-luck charm for one of our nation's most important space programs. "It became a tradition that right before launch, in the room with the operations personnel, somebody would pass around a jar of peanuts," Dr. Wessen said.

Teach Yourself Luck

At least one scientist, however, believes that luck isn’t really luck. Dr. Richard Wiseman, a psychologist at the University of Hertfordshire in England, spent eight years researching why some people seem to "get all the luck." As he told the BBC, "It is not intelligence or psychic ability, but a person's approach to life that matters."

Dr. Wiseman deduced "four principles of luck," which he used to run a "Luck School." The four principles are:

* Expect good fortune, which is often a self-fulfilling prophecy.

* Maximize your chances of something good happening by creating, noticing and acting on opportunities.

* Listen to "gut feelings" and act on "hunches" about people or situations.

* Cope with bad luck and turn it around by imaging how things could have been worse, or looking at what can be done.

Enhancing Your Good Luck

Do you have a good luck charm? Perhaps a lucky coin? Or a family keepsake that has brought you luck before? If that helps you expect good fortune, you’re one step up on luck, according to Dr. Wiseman’s method. Continue to take advantage of opportunies, listen to gut feelings, and be proactive about “bad luck,” and your old keepsake may very well be the luckiest charm around.

Are You Skilled at Being Lucky?Forget four-leaf clovers, the number seven and shiny new pennies. The gift of good fortune - a job you love, a new boyfriend, a fattened bank account - is within your reach, and luck has nothing to do with it. It's your behavior and general attitude that have everything to do with it. For some, it comes naturally; others need to work at it. Find out how your skills rate with this luck quiz.